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Thursday, November 10, 2016

I'll Take Mine Fried

I made it in time to capture the fiery foliage of the Cemetery Japanese Maple. It is entwined around a headstone, which is not visible in these photos. November is their month for vivid colour - as long as it doesn't get too windy. That's always a dilemma here in Grimsby with the wind off the escarpment or the Lake.

I planned to capture the large tree in front of one of our heritage homes and the leaves are gone - they dropped in one day. And around the corner from me is the largest Japanese Maple I've seen in Niagara, with the glorious red colour on the tree and in the driveway.

From the den garden website: "In Japan, maple trees are known as kaede (楓/"frog's hands"), as well as momiji (紅葉), which means both "become crimson leaves" and "baby's hands". Momiji is commonly used as the term for autumn foliage in general in Japanese, but it is also used as a term for maple trees. These names come from the appearance of the leaves, which resemble the hands of a baby or a frog. The scientific term for Japanese maples is Acer palmatum."

"In Japan's Osaka prefecture, the red and orange maple leaves are a sight to see during the fall. As is the case in the rest of Japan, people go out in droves to see the beautiful fall scenery. However, in Osaka, locals also go out in droves to collect the leaves and turn them into a deep-fried delicacy!

Fried maple leaves are a very popular snack in Osaka, and apparently have been for at least a thousand years. The city of Minoh, located in the north part of the prefecture, is particularly famous for their fried leaves.

The maple leaves are dipped and fried in tempura butter, which give them their unique taste. The secret of Minoh's success with fried leaves really isn't much of a secret at all. Chefs there usually store their leaves in barrels of salt for one year, which makes their leaves particularly tasty!"

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About Me

I am a photographer exploring two realms - the magic and wonder of plants, gardens and flowers in the natural world, and the everyday decays in the urban environment which are turned into abstract images.